Furies/Thanh Soi: Cuc Dai Trong Dem

Furies was a good movie. I have yet to see the sequal but i can tell from this that it must be good. Furies is the first netflix original from vietnam. And i think it was a good star. It has good slick action and a fighting style that blends in well. The movie is also a little sad in some ways with the subject mater and films of rape are said upon. The movie is all about this young girl and after a childhood incident she is found by this woman that takes her in and decides to train her along with two other girls. All three have great characters and acting and it is entertaining to watch. The revenge element works well and overall furies was a pretty good movie.

I really enjoyed this film a lot, even from the smaller details like cinematography of the bold colours throughout the film, and the 90s music. The main character is the quiet type, but I loved how the voice over of her inner thoughts got some of the plot and her emotions across.

The story is really cool, I did love the female empowerment of girls bonding, and literally fighting the patriarchy because of the men who are putting girls like them through awful situations. There are forced sex scenes in this film, but they actually are plot relevant, because there's a lot of revenge in this film.

The action is very good, everyone looked comfortable with the martial arts, and fighting. The pacing seemed good, and the balance between action and plot seemed nice. Overall very enjoyable film.

Another female-driven action film and a lot better than the ones Hollywood has been putting out recently (I can't even remember the title of the lame offering with Karen Gillan). This one is spearheaded by Veronica Ngo, who appeared in the earlier FURIE, which is only loosely linked to this movie. I thought the earlier film was fine but hampered by a low budget, and the good news is that things have been ramped up a lot here. There are multiple heroines and lavish fight scenes featuring them tackling huge rooms and long corridors full of marauding gangsters. The plot is workable, the emotion heartfelt, and there are even some good surprise twists along the way.

Shortly after this film, set in '90s Saigon, opens young Bi is attacked by one of her mother's clients. In the ensuing fight her mother is killed and she kills her attacker. Living on the streets of Saigon is dangerous and she is taken under the wing of Jacqueline, a woman who is also looking after two other girls, Hong and Thanh. They are trained to fight so they can defend themselves and others. One day, when they are considered ready, Jacqueline has them take on a gang that is abusing women. This will lead to fighting with martial arts, knives and guns and a climax that features a surprising twist.

If you are a fan of the action genre this is definitely worth watching. The action starts in the opening scenes and rarely lets up until the credits roll. This action is full on and nicely varied. There are some effects used, a fight on motorbikes would be impossible without them, but for the most part they aren't too obvious. The fights are all fairly gruelling and one constantly feels that out heroines are in real danger. We know deep down that three women couldn't take down scores of gangsters but while caught up in the action it isn't too hard to suspend ones disbelief. The camerawork is highly kinetic giving the viewer the feeling that they are almost in the action at times. The cast does a solid job; sometimes the villains are a bit OTT but this is clearly a deliberate choice. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of the action genre.

These comments are based on watching the film in Vietnamese with English subtitles.

When I sat down to watch the 2023 Vietnamese action crime thriller "Thanh Soi" (aka "Furies"), it was without ever having heard about it. However, that hardly mattered, because I liked the movie's cover, and also with it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I would give the movie a chance.

Writers Nha Uyen Ly Nguyen, Veronica Ngo, Nguyen Truong Nhan, Nguyen Ngoc Thach and Aaron Toronto put together a nice enough script and storyline for the movie. It made for some good old fashioned femme fatale entertainment. There is a lot of action, both shooting and fighting, throughout the 109 minutes that the movie ran for.

Given my lack of familiarity with the Vietnamese cinema, then I wasn't really familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. I was familiar with a single actor, the henchman with the spiky hair, though I don't know his name.

I have to say that I was genuinely entertained by "Thanh Soi", from star to end, so thumbs up to director Veronica Ngo for that accomplishment.

If you enjoy a good action movie, where you just lean back and enjoy the action, then you should give "Thanh Soi" a chance.

My rating of "Thanh Soi" lands on a six out of ten stars.